Jet Lag Recovery

Hi all,
I wanted to post up one more blurb to give our trip a final farewell.
We have been home since Wednesday and it's been kind of like living in a dream. Sleeping in our own bed and being in our own house feels fabulous although the jet lag thing is taking it's toll. Charlie is waking up at 4:15 am ready for the day. It's been slightly tough, but we've been productive in the wee hours of the morning so at least there's that.
We've got some pictures from our last days of travel, which I'll download. They include our makeshift fridge in Middlesex, Charlie's $250 and 45 minute flight of glory from Amsterdam to London...(you'll hear all about that in person be sure...like an eyelash in your eye)...and last look at Charlie's hippie long hair right before I chopped it off...had to. You couldn't see his face).
We had some interesting happenings on our way back:
Charlie had a Japanese fan club on the train to Schiphol Airport. They were very sweet and totally in love with him. So much so, in fact, that they were taking video footage of him and posing for pictures. It was absolutely hilarious.
Never fly Easyjet! They are a ripoff! We ended up having to pay for a seat for Charlie on the return flight to London because he was 5 days over being an "infant", which is what he was when we bought the tickets and flew the first leg of our trip.
We stayed in a hotel in Middlesex where George Orwell used to spend much of his time how cool is that)...although it was a total adventure on the city bus trying to get there. We had four or five people trying to tell us which stop to get off at (including a woman named Chantill), but the bus driver was useless.
If you weren't aware of it the Pound is like 2.25 x the value of the Dollar right now, so we ended up have the most expensive latte EVER in the history of lattes!
Anyway, that's it.
It's great to be home. It's great to be home in the fall and we are looking forward to seeing all of you in time, especially for the holidays.
Lots of love,
Us

coming to a close

Hallo Folks,

Ahh...well, we are getting ready to come home. We leave tomorrow for London and stay overnight there because we have an early flight on Wednesday.
I think at this point we are all ready to make the trip; ready to be sleeping in our own beds and looking at our own walls.

Both mom and Carlos got extremely sick last night (mom from eating a strange veggie patty thing and Carlos from eating Indian food...among other things). It looks like he might be spending all day in bed.

Charlie is holding up although he's been tired and cranky the past few days. I am STILL sick, but highly functioning, thank gawd.

We had an amazing day yesterday. After the rain and cold on Saturday, Sunday was brilliant. Today we haven't even left the house and it's, uh, at least 1 p.m.
...deep breath...
Yeah, it's definitely time to be at home.

I feel too tired (well rested, but exhausted) to share any of the adventures of the past few days. You'll just have to put up with the stories when we get home.
I may post some more pictures before we leave tomorrow.

It's obviously been a life-changing experience. But as we all know, these things just make you appreciate home that much more...

Maybe even of greater impact though is the realization that you can be anywhere and make your home. That you are adaptable and malleable and that everyone, everywhere is just doing the best they can to live a good life and that's enough.

Love you. See you soon.
xo

Taking Cover

We've been in Amsterdam for one amazing week. The weather has been perfect: chilly, raining, overcast. Full blown fall. It's so refreshing.
There have been some pretty chilly days, but we've managed to tuck into all kinds of cafes, coffee shops, chocolate shops, shopping shops. We even found an underground/indoor playground for Charlie.
Anna and Jesse were here for the first four days with us and that was an intense ride. We did a ton of stuff those first few days. Obviously we got very, very lost a few times and discovered one of the best take away noodle places ever.
The city is beautiful. You can get any kind of food you want. Everything is open very late (which you may have noticed is right up my night owl alley). It's kid friendly, family friendly and pretty much everyone in the city is friendly.
One of our favorite pastimes so far has been to sit on the corner of one of the busier streets at a pub called Mulders (discovered gratefully by Jesse and Anna)and watch the incredible orchestra of traffic: a gazillion bikes, a few pedestrians, a tram or two, a couple dozen cars all crisscrossing seamlessly. It's an absolutely spectacular site.
We are now officially on bikes ourselves. This definitely lends another level of excitement to our endeavors.
I am still sick...sicker some days. Charlie threw up this morning but is as cheerful as ever. Mom is finally over her jet lag...I think. Carlos got very, very sick a couple of days ago, but he cleared it all out quickly.
All-in-all we are living well here, but I think I speak for all of us when I say that we will be ready to sleep in our own beds and laze around on our own couches.
We miss you all very much.
See you soon.

Here's some more pictures. (I think...if not, soon)
xo
thethreesees and the momma

Ever stayed the night in the train station?

Well, have you?
We had a great day Wednesday exploring Florence a little. I stood in line at the Uffizi for an hour to see more religious paintings (gross), but was redeemed by the fact that I saw the two most beautiful Botticelli paintings: The birth of Venus and Primavera and missed out on the real reason I even went. All of the drawings by DiVinci and Rafael are closed to the public! They don't tell you that. Only opened via special request. Right. Suuuuucks!
Oh, well. There is a "second" original (which just doesn't make sense) of the David outside the gallery. So it goes.

The point is that we went to Lucca and then back to Milan.
We got in at 12:05 a.m. and all the buses to the airport have left. Ummm...sleeping in the train station? Yup.
Miserable. In the "Waiting Room" with the other waiters. There is actually a guy snoring.
Anyway, 4 a.m. with no sleep we catch the bus. Catch the plane. Catch a cold.
Charlie is snotty. I am clearly snotty, but also suffering from some strange digestive problems and constant sinus pressure. Anyway, it's a good place to recover.

Amsterdam is freaking great. Anna and Jesse end up in an apartment literally across the street from us, but I am too tuckered out to tell you all about that.

Regrettably there will be more stories to share.

Love you,
CCC

Last Time I Said No To That...

It's 6:30, maybe 7:00 o'clock in the evening and we are almost lost in Florence without a place to sleep. We've had very little to eat and it's hot...
THE QUESTION: Should we get a beer?
THE OBVIOUS ANSWER: The last time I said no to that I didn't understand the question.

So, where did we leave off?
We are snugly situated in our Amsterdam apartment and it feels like we are finally at the resting phase of our trip. Amsterdam, so far, is wonderfully overcast and chilly; very much alive and pulsing under the heaviness of fall. It's a relief from the hot and sweaty, almost tropical feeling of France and Italy. I am very happy to say it was pouring rain when we got off the train on Thursday.

More about Amsterdam - our escapades last night with Anna and Jesse to the Red Light District - later...

Back to the story...
There is something we've got to tell you about.

Leaving Venice going to ...? Yeah, not sure where was INTENSE.
General direction equaled Florence. General plans equaled trying to find a place to stay, an internet cafe and eat.
Florence is beautiful and everyone knows it. Apparently September and October are still considered high season and every single person vacationing in Europe has to go to see the David and the Uffizi Galleria. Like we really need to see another freaking religious painting! Anyway...

We got into Florence around 5 p.m. It's so, so hot and our bags are heavier than usual, obviously. Uh, where are we going? Get a map. Head toward one of the Rick Steve's suggested *one star* hotels...checking other hotels on the way...
-First Hotel: sorry, full
-Second Hotel: sorry, full
-Third Hotel:...get the point?
See the Duomo...yeah, See San Lorenza...yeah...um, still don't have a place to stay.

Reinsert the question.
Should we have a beer?
The last time I said no to that I didn't understand the question.

So it goes.
We find an internet cafe. People are very friendly. We call mom at 3:17 in the morning to make sure she's going to be on the plane later that day. We do a little email. Try to figure out where we are going to stay tomorrow night with no luck. Get a recommendation of where to search for a hotel...kinda helpful.

Anyway, we wonder some more and some more and some more and finally with some help we find a great room (way too much, but we did talk the guy down 30 euros) and ended up having the BEST MEAL of our trip at the coolest little restaurant, and had a glass of wine at one of the coolest bars that we'd found in Italy. And now Charlie has an Italian girlfriend 15 times his age!

NIIIICE. Success.

Okay, hang in there...

So what have you been doing in Venice?

Well, folks, we’ve had no wifi in our little apartment, so that’s why there have been no updates in the last four days or so. Come to find out there is a little wifi point right up the calle from us.
Venice is amazing. It is refreshingly unlike Paris, but marvelously strange and mysterious much like Paris. The language is fun and familiar. Ciao this and grazie that, Prego this and Buena sera that.
The canals are very romantic and the weather is absolutely tropical.
But that brings us to the one major drawback: mosquitoes. Poor Carlos. They like him so much that they’ve pretty much left us alone. We sleep under a mosquito net.
We had a 1 and a half hour long rain storm today. Of course it began just after we hung our wet laundry out to dry.
Some of the best things about Venice: The stand up bar/cafes. Everything is cheaper if you have it standing. Plus, this method is way cooler and more Venetian. Also, the outdoor markets, on boats! Cool. Oh my gawd, the brioche and the cappuccinos are fabulous. Walking everywhere and getting lost no matter what. You just can’t help it. You might as well just start out with the sole purpose of getting lost. It’s easier to handle.

We leave tomorrow (we hope) without incident. On a train (we hope) headed toward Florence and some of the surrounding towns. To eventually meet up with mom (we hope) in Amsterdam.

Exodus to Italia

So…in order to save you precious moments of your life…and me the extra 5 euros in internet time it would take to retell this story in its entirety, I am obliged to abbreviate.

Besides all that, I think it adds mystery.

Enter here: 8:30 a.m. Thursday, September 13

-Meet Michelle upstairs in Paris apartment. Michelle is our host. An artist. Spiky hair. Very short. Very nice. Awkward greetings, how was your stay, blah, blah, blah.
- 8:45 a.m. leave apartment and head for patisserie.
- Can’t find one (I mean, the “right” one) close to the Metro. Move on.
- 8:52 a.m. head down into Guy Moquet Metro station.
*Insert profanities here!*
- RUSH HOUR ON THE METRO.
- Sardines. The Metro is very literally the physical interpretation of a human sardine can.
- People and their briefcases are smashing themselves into the cars. The doors force just a little more room to be made. No appendages left behind. Thank gawd!
- No chance of two adults, one small child, three very large backpacks, one adidas box (oh, yes, this. Back up to 8:47. Looking for a post to send box of stuff we don’t need back home. Post not open. Box has to come with us. CRAP!) and a stroller. NO CHANCE!
- We wait.
- 8:59 we wait. 9:06 we wait. 9: 11 we wait.
- 9: 17 Voila. We’re in.
- First Metro transfer. Easy. Kind of.
- Second Metro transfer. What the bleep?!@*!!
- Into the bowels of hell we go. (Two adults, one small child, 3 HUGE backpacks, one adidas box and one stroller)
- 9:35 a.m. we sit and rest. And wait.
- Enter angry Frenchman
- Us = sitting peacefully catching our breath.
- Him = yelling in French. Getting VERY, VERY close to Carlos’s face.
- Carlos = what?
- Him = ANGRY…at what?
- He walks away.
- Us = ????
- Oh my gawd, he comes back!
- He gets closer to Carlos
- Me = Hey buddy!
- Him = Still angry, but finally walks away!
- Us = Are we there yet? Scary.
- On to the Metro…to the end of the line.
- Bus to Orly – Sud airport.
- Late. Very late.
- We miss our flight to Milan, Linate.
- CRAP!
- easyjet counter lady = Go to the other airport and try to get onto the next flight to a different airport in Milan.
- Charlie is very cranky. Screaming cranky.
- One hour on Air France bus only to be dropped off in the wrong terminal.
- At the right terminal. 104 euros later. 1:45 flight to Milan.
- Milan at last!
- One hour on a very crowded bus to Staczione Centrale
- A light snack, a small wait.
- Two hours on a train to Venice.
- WE’RE HERE! Umm, nope. Wrong stop.
- CRAP! CRAP! CRAP!
- It’s okay.
- It’s okay.
- Back on the train to the OTHER Venezia stop…duh.
- Is that water? We must be there.
- Yes!
- On to the boat. Vallasarro.
- 25 minutes later we land 100m from our doorstep.
- 10: 10 p.m.

Exit here.

The French Laundry

Out of the apartment around lunch time today. One stop at the patisserie for deux jambon sandwich and off to search for a place to wash clothes.
First try: intimidating man sitting, sunken into the seat next to what looks like the pay machine, which we are attempting to decipher through the half open door. Nothing looks remotely familiar, we can't fully read what's on the machine nor do we understand it (at all really), and the intimidating man is just too intimidating.
The consensus, keep looking.
Down another unfamiliar street - exciting - and into the unknown.
Ah, there on the other side of the street. Is it? Yes? Yes!
Anyone guarding the washer? We wouldn't want someone to see us looking ridiculous trying to interpret what will obviously turn out to be a very efficient and easy system - and does and is.
D'accord.
About 9 euro later (this being the most expensive load of laundry we've ever done it's like we've just ordered something off the French Laundry menu itself) we have successfully completed one large load of laundry, purchased some tasty Yazoo(chocolate milk), got groceries and made friends with the Monsieur next door who runs the adjoining dry cleaners.
Shall we be so bold as to have some wine now? I think the answer is, Oui!

Do EEET!

Charlie learned a new phrase last night as he was winding *up* for bedtime:
Throwing himself over and over again onto the mattress of our luxury pullout bed he encourages me to join in. I oblige once, twice, three times, more. "Up, up. Down, down."
"Mom doesn't want to do it anymore, Charlie."
Charlie: (wait for it...)

"Do eeet! Do eeet!"

Just exactly like that. Do eeeet.

And now after sleeping very, very late :) the only thing I can guarantee is that we will be having our cafe au lait, most likely a croissant and sandwich, some wine, and inevitably wondering the streets.

How cool is that?

xo

the three sees

How much cafe au lait is enough?

What have we learned so far? Besides more french, we now know that Carlos should *not* drink cafe express after 8 p.m. Wacky! Nutty! Almost unbearably spunky! Not recommended!
With that said, the last two days have been physically intense - hence the need for a little boost late in the day. As you can see from the slide show of pics, we went down to the Seine yesterday to see Notre Dame and ended up walking for...ever! Up and down, in and out, around and back again. Tres Bien! Yes, but exhausting. A much different feel than hanging around our little neighborhood.
We met some of the friendliest Frenchmen along the way yesterday - used to us Americans I suppose. They all suffered politely through our irreparably broken French.
But really, Notre Dame was incredible - the pictures do not do it justice. The Seine is glorious, and yesterday was a perfect day to see it for the first time. A little cloudy, just enough to make you think it could rain, but with the sun sneaking through to light up the river and the Cite almost magically.
We could have sat along its banks all day.

Charlie is doing better. Getting adjusted and sleeping almost through the night. Carlos' Merci is sounding more like the French Merci and less like the American girl's name Marcy. (This has been a point of laughter since the first day). He is also getting braver about asking for things in French, but it takes a little kick in the butt to get him to do it. On his behalf, he has the Metro all figured out and keeps us going in the right direction.
Today I ordered a "cup of wine" instead of a "glass of wine" and got a very strange/blank stare and then a vague smile. Oh, well. We try. It's fun.
We've been sleeping till 9 or 10. Leaving the house by 11. It's fabulous!
We explored the Champs Elysees and the Louvre today.
My God, it's crazy (CE). The city life for sure. Busy, frenetic, very posh in some areas and very beautiful in others. (home of the cleanest bathroom in downtown Paris - so says the sign, and Carlos - and you can pee there yourself for 1.5 euros).
I think we ended up saving ourselves from the pure weight of the Louvre because we inadvertently gave ourselves only about and hour and a half.
Charlie hung in there and finally fell asleep in the stroller. We got to see the Mona Lisa (note: anticlimactic). But there is something about the *idea* of the Mona Lisa that has always struck me as conflicted, strangely beautiful and then not at all. So, not a loss.
Venus de Milo, Victory of Samothrace (amazing!) and much of the Michelangelo work, which was of course breathtaking. Unfortunately we missed the "Gabrielle d'Esrees and One of Her Sisters Bathing" (think nipple). Bummer.
At the end of it all, I felt like there were infinite things to see - obviously.
We ended the day wondering in circles, literally, looking for a cafe to have dinner in. I had the toughest most wonderful steak I've ever had. (Every moment we were sitting down, was the best of my life. Phew.)
Tim, we looked for the best truffles in Paris, but alas I think we missed them. And we missed the Musee De L'Orangerie by minutes. Maybe next time.

- Some of our favorite parts of Paris: The Metro and the Crepes (our favorites so far are the citron and the coco with nutella...oh, my gawd!)

...wake up now, I am done.

Till next time...

xo to all of you. Email us and enjoy the pictures.

the three sees

From S.F. to Paris: A marathon in...everything.

I have a feeling this will be one of the longest entries in the blog for our whole trip simply because we covered four countries in approximately two days...less actually, 37 hours. All told the trip was awesome, but really bleeping long! Charlie did great: only one, two...okay about three meltdowns. The worst being Saturday morning, but hopefully we are on our way to happier baby days.
So, here we are in Paris near the Montmartre and fairly close - within walking distance - from Sacre Coeur, which we explored today. What I realize is that we are in a part of Paris where, especially this time of year, there are very, very few tourists. This is a wonderful and yet very challenging situation. No one is willing to speak English! No one. Unless you ask and then they are cryptic, but friendly. But sense I am afraid to ask, I struggle along until I get the strawberries or someone behind me assists. (okay, not afraid, stubborn...obviously) Really most people have been very friendly. "Sorry, no I can't help you," as the man at the Ile de France train ticket counter so kindly replied. " I don't know where that is and I don't have a map." WHAT?
That had to be the most stressful part of our entire journey. Oh, and when we thought maybe we didn't have a place to stay in Paris...

So, Paris-Nord train station. Yeah. We spent at least a good hour and a half trying to figure out how to leave it! The RER, the Metro, T, BUS...hmmm, which one to take. How do we get a ticket? Where do we get on? Chaos. No maps. Information counter not helpful. Charlie is restless. The natives were definitely restless and running everywhere. But thanks to Carlos we made it to the Metro line and to our apartment.
Oh, oops. No keys. No host. No phone. Um, no phone number. No Internet access to get phone number. What do we do? Drink of course! After a beer it all worked out. Found Internet access. Found phone number and subsequent email. Found host. Found keys. We are in!
Ahhh...so here we are. The weather is perfect and we are wondering the streets. It's fabulous. Tomorrow we might venture out into the "tourist" realm and see what there is to see.
The best part of our trip so far: Amsterdam! Good thing we are going back. Thanks to our friend of a friend of a friend, Tara Hagen, we were escorted from the airport, given a place to stay, maps, food, a phone, tram tickets (with explicit instructions on how to use the tram, how to say please and thank you in Dutch, how not to get on and off the tram, etc. The list of host-like wonders goes on and on. Tara, you rock! May you all meet a Tara Hagen on your journeys, and if you are meeting us in Amsterdam, you probably will also meet Tara.
Okay, I must retire. Carlos is telling me it's time to go to bed (I say, why, we are on vacation...). Anyway...till next time. Au revoir. Bonne nuit.

Check out the rest of the pictures!